Oven building in Mozambique

Oven building in Mozambique

Manica, Mozambique. 27 July 2012.
Alina and Paulo, AFH Design Fellows on the Manica Football for Hope centre have gone further in their brick making training in Manica... they just finished building an earth oven with the local community.

"The oven idea was born out of two necessities: the first was that the centre host had an oven in the past that was destroyed because it was badly constructed and not thermally effective and at the same time GDM wanted to recover their old tradition they have in making bread to the village, resulting in a good income source.

The second was to show to the local community the possibilities and potentials of earth architecture and the bricks made for the FFH centre.

The oven is divided in two different functions: a bread/pizza oven and a “rocket stove” to reduce the use of wood, very scarce in Manica province, where deforestation is increasing.
The mix made of earth improves the thermal inertia resulting in a good and effective heat storage, made with local materials.
We used different “techniques” to enhance the function of the oven, such as MEB bricks and CEB bricks with natural fibres and local pigments very connected with Manica traditions, so at the end it was a contemporary design very influenced by local knowledge and cultural details.
In short, the oven final price was 55 USD and was made with recycled CEB bricks from laboratory tests and MEB bricks.

Also, we can confirm that bricks for the new FFH centre are very strong and multifunctional and the bread and pizza made in GDM’s new oven are delicious!